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Sorry, Jahlil Okafor, but Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel are best friends, and they want to play together

Ben Rohrbach
·Senior NBA writer
Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel share a laugh, as Jahlil Okafor ponders the future. (Getty Images)
Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel share a laugh, as Jahlil Okafor ponders the future. (Getty Images)

As if the big man logjam on the 76ers couldn’t get any odder, Philadelphia is rallying a groundswell of support for Nerlens Noel — the coach’s designated odd man out in the team’s three-center rotation.

Despite Sixers coach Brett Brown’s recent removal of Noel from the rotation for the foreseeable future, Philly fans and players made their displeasure with that decision known publicly on Tuesday.

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As the New Orleans Pelicans turned a double-digit deficit into a double-digit lead with a 42-point second quarter on Tuesday night, fans at Wells Fargo Center interspersed chants of “Nerlens,” “Put Nerlens in” and “We want Nerlens,” according to The Philadelphia Enquirer. And Brown relented midway through the third quarter, subbing Noel for fellow young big Jahlil Okafor to a rousing ovation that only increased as the 22-year-old collected four points and three rebounds in a productive 6:49.

Noel did not return in the fourth quarter, and the Sixers lost, 108-93. Afterwards, Joel Embiid pledged his support for his fellow 7-footer, calling Noel his “best friend on the team,” in a manner that sure made it seem like they would prefer Okafor was the odd man out instead. Via Liberty Ballers:

“I loved it,” Embiid said of the standing ovation for Noel. “He’s my best friend on the team, and I was really happy for him. He’s been working his ass off too. The other day [he] was in the gym just working with Richaun [Holmes], playing one-on-one, two-on-two, so I felt really happy for him and I thought he should have played more.

“I also want to get on the court and see what we can look like together, because I like him and want to play with everybody. I feel like if we are trying something, we should try the other thing too. So hopefully in the future they do that.

“Because I have some type of relationship with him, I think I’m going to get him going, especially on the defensive end. Being aggressive, blitzing every pick and roll, just flying all over the place, I think we can really do that while we’re on the court, and then offensively I’m sure we are going to figure it out. But I mean it’s a team game, so just going to go out and compete every night with what we have.”

“Try the other thing too” is in reference to what has so far been a failed experiment of playing Embiid and Okafor together. After consciously avoiding playing those two together, Brown paired them in the starting lineup around the time of Noel’s return, and the Sixers have been outscored by 13.1 points per 100 possessions in 67 minutes with that duo on the floor. Embiid and Noel have yet to share the court.

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Since returning from arthroscopic knee surgery on Dec. 11, Noel hasn’t played more than 10 minutes, and a pair of DNPs sandwiched around an eight-minute stint against the Los Angeles Lakers resulted in this public statement from Noel aimed at Philly’s front office: “I think I’m too good to be playing eight minutes. Like, no, that’s crazy. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. They need to figure this s— out.”

The “s—” Noel referenced is a 76ers frontcourt crowded by their selection of centers with three straight top-flight lottery picks — Noel, Embiid and Okafor, and it’s a problem new Sixers general manager Brian Colangelo both acknowledges and rightfully blames on former GM Sam Hinkie:

That is little consolation to Sixers fans or the three young men directly affected by this clusterfudge. Embiid is safe. In just 28 games, the likely Rookie of the Year has already cemented himself as a franchise cornerstone, and he will continue to meet his minutes limit, whatever it is moving forward.

The team faces a choice between Noel and Okafor, because all three bigs cannot play together, and the former seemed like the least likely to stick around, given his extensive injury history and impending restricted free agency. Those factors also make him incredibly difficult to trade for value, especially when he’s sitting on the end of your bench and opposing teams know you have to deal him.

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Now, on top of all that, Philadelphia’s fans and best player seem to prefer Noel to Okafor, or at least they’d like they option to at least see if Noel is worth keeping around, and they’re absolutely right.

If Embiid and Noel can coexist, then the Sixers either have a frontcourt of the future or a more attractive trade chip. And if they can’t, then at least the team can point to that when Noel leaves for little or no return. The only real downside is enabling a guy who’s been calling out the front office for months now, but when you’re a perennial failure of a franchise, that’s on you as much as it is him.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!